2/1/2018 History

Today in Labor History – February 01, 1867 – Led by 23-year-old Kate Mullaney, the Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y., and raises earnings for female laundry workers from $2 to $14 a week.

1867 – Bricklayers begin working 8-hour days.

1913 – Some 25,000 Paterson, N.J., silk workers strike for 8-hour work day and improved working conditions. Eighteen hundred were arrested over the course of the six-month walkout, led by the Wobblies. They returned to work on their employers’ terms.

1968 – The federal minimum wage increases to $1.60 per hour.

1995 – Int’l Brotherhood of Firemen & Oilers merges with Service Employees Int’l Union.